Random thoughts and copies of emails that I spend way too much time on.

Monday, April 09, 2007

The American Way needs to change.

What it's going to take for someone to win the Oval Office is popularity. Fundamentally, that's what the election is, a popularity contest. Candidates can earn that popular vote within each state by having the best ideas, having a worthy history in government service, or being able to pay for the best advertising. Whatever works, the campaigns will do. We can try to put all the higher ideals on it that we wish, but in the end, whoever gets the most votes wins, both at a caucus, a primary or the general election.

Bill Richardson would be fantastic as President. I really appreciate his foreign policy experience, and I like what he's done in New Mexico with Energy policy. He would certainly be a good person to go to the Middle East to talk and listen to the leaders and the people over there. But I'm thinking that it might take a lot of work to broker those deals, and we need someone dedicated to making it work who won't have to also work on other issues. I believe that Gov. Richardson needs to be the person to focus on the issues that we have with our neighbors in the global community.

My top three candidates right now are Edwards, Obama and Richardson. But I'm looking beyond the Oval Office and into the Cabinet room. I want to know who is going to be picked for Secretary of Health and Human Services. I want to know who will be picked to fill the Secretary of Labor position. I want the best minds and the best hearts around the table listening to each other and gathering ideas on how to fix the problems that we are facing. I don't want one person saddled with the responsibility of coming up with all the ideas.

At the Denver convention, we need to know without a doubt who will be looking at and solving the problems that we face as a nation and how we will help our neighbors solve the problems that we face around the world. I want to know who will sit around the round table in collaboration and cooperation with each other, with the American People and with the world community.

We need to stop crushing the American Dream with the American Way. The way we live needs to change at a deep fundamental level.

1 comment:

Thank you for looking towards the 2008 Presidential Elections. Even as a Republican, I also an a Obama fan.

Having said that, in a recent talk given by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), the good Senator mentioned how he spoke with the President recently about seeking bi-partisanship and how he could go down in history as "St. Patrick" and George W. Bush as "St. George." To this, apparently George W. Bush, the President, stated, "Patrick, you know that neither one of us is a saint . . ."

Although a humorous glimpse into the "movers & shakers" of our Government, I thought, well, did our President just sell himself and the good Senator short?

What would it look like to truly seek holiness while in political office?

One example (from ages of olde . . .) is St. Edward the Confessor, 11th century Saxon King of England. St. Edward (officially canonized) brought together warring factions in England and started instating Norman officials in the English Court (perhaps in anticipation of the coming Norse invasion of 1066). What could have been a time of utter upheaval, ended up, instead being a time of British expansion, albeit with new Norman gentry running the show, but still a Nation in formation.

How this could apply to our current Government is perhaps through liberals and conservatives seeking out the holiest men & women (and not the most popular!), then the "St. Patrick/St. George" type of coalition could lead us instead into greater prosperity, peace in the Middle East, and a New, better United States.

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About Me

Chad Lupkes is a progressive political activist in Seattle, Washington. After fighting cancer in 2003 and realizing that 47+ Million people in the United States didn't have access to health care he determined that that will change.